... explains differences in effi-ciency of financial institutions?,” Journal of Bankingand Finance, Vol. 21, pp. 895–947.DeYoung, Robert, 2001a, “Learning-by-doing, scaleefficiencies, and financial ... participated in the interviews. This typicallyincluded the bank’s chief executive officer (CEO),chief financial officer (CFO), chief operations officer(COO), and cashier, as well as a branch ... substantial reduction in thenumber of community banks in the U.S. As shown in figure 1, over half of all U.S. bank mergers since 1985have combined two community banks (defined here as having less than...